I ignore a lot of advice from the government. I don’t eat the correct servings of fruits and vegetables each day and I definitely don’t drink eight glasses of water per day, and it’s worked out fine for me considering I’m still alive. But the newest alcohol consumption recommendations from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) are really quite concerning.
They recommend that all women who aren’t on birth control to stop drinking. Not just “stick to one or two glasses of wine,” but stop it entirely. Zero alcohol. None. Why?
Unplanned pregnancies.
From their research, they concluded that there really is no “safe” way of drinking alcohol while pregnant, so women who could theoretically conceive a baby should put down the bottle in order to keep their hypothetical child healthy.
“About half of all US pregnancies are unplanned and, even if planned, most women do not know they are pregnant until they are 4-6 weeks into the pregnancy,” states the CDC’s report. “This means a woman might be drinking and exposing her developing baby to alcohol without knowing it.” Therefore, “it is recommended that women who are pregnant or might be pregnant not drink alcohol at all.”
This might seem a bit extreme, and it is, but this recommendation comes from the staggering amount of babies born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). According to their research, 1 in 20 school children may have FAS. Their stance on the issue is basically, why take the risk? If you’re sexually active, you could possibly get pregnant, and if you do happen to get pregnant, you shouldn’t be drinking at all.
Critics of this recommendation say that making women abstain completely from alcohol because of a possible or not-yet-existing fetus “hearkens to classic sexist attitudes and policies that diminish the agency of women in favor of her ability to carry a child.”
Maybe this will be another recommendation people will ignore, like the drinking eight glasses of water a day thing. But if you’re sexually active or could possibly be sexually active in the future, the responsible thing to do is to talk to your doctor about a birth control that would work best for you. There are tons of options out there, hormonal and non-hormonal, for you to consider. No babies and you can drink alcohol without going against CDC recommendations? Sounds good to me. .
[via Broadly]
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Cristina Montemayor
Cristina is a Grandex Writer and Content Manager. She was an intern for over two years before she graduated a semester early to write about college full time, which makes absolutely no sense. She regretfully considers herself a Carrie, but is first and foremost a Rory. She tends to draw strong reactions from people. They are occasionally positive. You can find her in a bar as you're bending down to tie your shoes, drinking Dos XX and drunk crying to Elton John. Email her: cristina@grandex.co (not .com).
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